Former Bolivian president Evo Morales said gunmen fired a hail of bullets at his car Sunday as he travelled to a radio interview in the central city of Cochabamba, wounding his driver.

"The car in which I arrived has 14 bullet holes," said Morales, adding: "This was planned. The idea was to kill Evo."

The radio station that hosted the interview, Kawsachun Coca, released a video that it said was of the bullet-ridden pickup truck that Morales had been in.

The windshield had three bullet holes and the driver had blood on his head.

Morales blamed the current president, Luis Arce, a former ally and cabinet minister of his with whom he has fallen out, for the attack.

"Lucho has destroyed Bolivia and now he wants to eliminate our process by killing Evo," Morales, using the president's nickname, said of his own attempt to regain the presidency.

Morales, a former coca grower who is now 65, served as president from 2006 until 2019. He was highly popular in the Andean country until he tried to bypass the constitution to seek a fourth term.

He was forced to resign after losing the support of the military following an election marked by allegations of fraud, and fled to Mexico.

Morales returned to Bolivia in 2020 seeking political resurrection.

He and Arce are both vying for the nomination of the ruling MAS party in August 2025 presidential elections, although Morales is legally barred from running again.

Morales is being investigated for rape, human trafficking and human smuggling over his alleged sexual relationship with a 15-year-old member of his political youth guard in 2015.

Supporters of Morales have protested by blocking major roads throughout the country for two weeks.

On Saturday, the government had criticised Morales for "destabilising" the country with two weeks of road blockades that have jammed up supplies of food and fuel around the country. It accused him of trying to "interrupt democratic order".

The government in a statement also said some groups allied to Morales were armed and warned about violence, citing 14 police officers wounded trying to break up the blockades. (Wires)